Wednesday, March 6, 2013

First Impressions of the Isle of Thunder

Well, 5.2 has now dropped. We still don't have Throne of Thunder via LFR yet, so the main event is yet to come (except for those who are actually ready to run a new raid on normal the first week of a patch.)

First of all, the island itself: I adore the place. It has that great spooky Gilneas/Darkmoon Isle vibe that Blizzard is really good at pulling off. Likewise, the new Zandalari troll models and overall style is fantastic - we've seen the various Troll Tribe stuff, but until now they've mainly looked somewhat ruined or worn down - the Zandalari have brought what the real troll empires ought to look like to the island.

The load of daily quests is somewhat large, but unlike Golden Lotus, you can switch up the order in which you complete them. Getting around the island, or really getting onto the island is a bit of a challenge because you have to go through the Troll area to do so, but you have quests there every day, so you'll be going there anyway. Once Stage 1 ends, we'll have hubs more conveniently placed, so while it's kind of cool hanging out on Jaina's ship, it'll be cooler to have a Kirin Tor base.

I've been able to run the Trove of the Thunder King twice now, once on Jarsus and once on Oterro. It's clear that at least for your first couple trips, you won't be able to get a ton out of it, but rewards I have come across include tons of Elder Charms (as we move out of the 5.0 raids, these are getting other uses) and a number of things to boost rep gains and valor points.

Right now my focus is on Jarsus (who finally got a 10th - and 11th - sigil of power in MSV, so hopefully he'll eventually get back on track with the Legendary chain. Still no Sha-touched weapon though.)

I'll be very curious to see the other parts of the island, but it will still be a couple more days to get the Kirin Tor (and Sunreaver) town, after which stage 3 I believe will open up the upper levels.

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